Iran issues bank note with nuclear symbol

Iran today issued a bank note with a nuclear symbol in a move seen as an assertion of the national will in the face of international sanctions over its insistence on enriching uranium.

The new note for 50,000 rials (about €4.40) also reflected rising inflation, a fact that has brought criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies.

It is worth more than twice the previously highest denomination note.

The note is printed in orange, green and blue and shows a nuclear symbol within a map of Iran.

A brief text next to the symbol gives a quote from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed: “Men from the land of Persia will attain scientific knowledge even if it is as far as the Pleiades.” Pleiades is a cluster of stars.

In conformity with the law, the note also bears a portrait of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

State television said the Central Bank had issued six million of the new note, and will introduce another six million within the next two weeks.

The nuclear program is a source of national pride in Iran.